I think I'm done with tech work...

I've been working with computers officially since 1997, but lately I've just lost the desire to deal with them at all.

Customers in general have become real assholes as of late, people arguing about every single item on an invoice, bitching about rates, and refusing to pay bills. I might be going to court with one right away, which royally sucks, but I might not get paid any other way.

Maybe it's just the economy going down the toilet, but lately people have begun to try and bargain just about everywhere! I heard a guy in the grocery store bitching about prices to the poor cashier! If you dont like the prices, dont buy the product. Dont put it in your cart, and then yell at the poor teenage girl running the till.

I had a guy in the store here today bitching about the shop rate of $75/hr to fix his cell phone. Yes, we took it apart and resoldered a speaker connector. Minimum charge = 1 hr. If you like, I can break it again, and you can go on your way. If you bring something in to get fixed, and it gets fixed, you should be prepared to pay, especially since you were told upfront that it's out of warranty and it's going to cost you.

In general, I've just been getting more and more frustrated with people in regards to tech work. I made an estimate for this client of $5500 for the project, not including materials. His invoice was under $4000, and he's still fighting with me about it! He mailed out a payment "that he thinks is fair".. you cant do that.

You dont go to a restaurant and order food, then eat it, and then refuse to pay full price because something wasnt what you expected. You see the price right next to the food when you order. If you get it, and it's not good, you send it back and get something else. You dont eat it all, and then refuse to pay.

So certainly when someone does you a service for a pre-agreed upon rate (with a contract and everything), and the invoice is less much less than the quote, why would you be such an asshole and refuse to pay?

I'm just sick to death of dealing with people like this, and I'm about ready to just give up on computers completely. Since I left my sysadmin job, I have hardly been able to find any tech work at all. I dont know if my reputation has been trashed or something, or what the problem is, but I know that I just dont care about it anymore.

I have no idea what else i can do for work, since all my training and experience has pretty much revolved around hardware and support, but the thought of walking into another tech job is just making me sick right now. I'm struggling with a website project right now, and I just feel like I'm wasting my time and the time of my employer. I'm going to recommend that he just hire an actual designer, and just get them to do it. I'll work with them to get the content and design that is wanted, but as far as the coding goes, I'm just lost and cant seem to get myself to care about learning it.

I have a chance to go drive heavy equipment (almost full time), or to start apprenticing in either construction, or electrical, and there's a posting for an apprentice baker that just came up.. all of those things are more appealing to me than what I'm doing now.

Does anyone have any words of advice?

I hear you. If you can find a job doing what you want go for it. I personally believe it is better to have a career where you are happy than one that stresses you out to extremes. Just make sure you will make enough doing whatever that you can support yourself properly with it. Good luck man.

I found a lot of people argue the price now a days, they seem to believe that they'll get their way if they make enough fuss.

People are complaining about prices everywhere. I tried to do some mechanic work on the side a few months ago, posted an ad and got a lot of responses. I advertised cheap labor rates. I was charging $20 and hour, you can't find an independent garage for less than $40 and the dealerships are charging $75+. I've got certifications, a degree and lots of experience and ever person I talked to tried to talk me down on my rates. I told them to take it to a shop and see if they lower their rates for them because I was being more than fair.

If you aren't happy doing what you are doing and have a chance to pursue a career change that may make you happy I'd recommend going for it if you will be able to support yourself. I'm going back to school for web design because I can't stand how the management treats technicians at any garage that pays decent money. Best of luck to you.

I do work on motorcycles, atvs, jet skiis and such in my spare time, I charge $35/hr and get no complaints. The cheapest shop anywhere nearby is $75, so it works out for me. Also, I was looking into doing heavy equipment operating, but with the crazy slowdown in house building lately, that may not be the way to go. on the other hand, baking has 100% job security, people always need food :up:

People even try this at Wendy's. I get people all the time who will eat the whole meal then come back and say something wasn't right with it and they want the money back. It's nice to be the GM cause then I'm like no way dude. Like I always tell my crew, "The customer can always be right, till I prove them wrong."

The only tip I have for you is don't have a tech job where you have to deal with people. Actually, don't have any job where you have to deal with customers.

At my (soon to be) work, I won't have to deal with anybody. Just stocking shelves, cleaning up the shop and calling manufacturers to order parts. Once I move up it gets better, then I get to do the actual fixing. The guy who owns the shop knows I don't want to deal with customers, so he won't make me.

It's the whole twisted "customer is always right" attitude that causes this crap. Working in retail sobers you up a bit i think. People tend to think that because they are paying you for something they are entitled to whatever they want plus rainbows and gumdrops on the side. I've grown to hate consumerism. I hate corporations that take advantage of customers but i equally hate customer who think that they deserve everything, no... i hate them more than greedy corporations. They walk in to your business like they own the place, like your some sort of lower class servant just because they are the ones dishing out the cash.

sorry

rant over.

Luke,

Wow. Thoughts:

Driving heavy machinery is a lot of fun, I'll say that for sure, but can be dirty work. Baking is a wonderful skill but the hours suck. People can be as annoying as hell. They can also be pretty cool.

Have you contemplated using your tech skills in your own small business. Just setting up new PC's for Grandma's and the like, all you need is a van or car and print some flyers then go post them through the doors in every rich part of town. Setting up wireless networks pays too.

At least if they are your customers you get to chose the ones you work for. You can also have annual support contracts for the computer-afraid generations $200 bucks gets them up to 4 hrs telephone support plus one site visit (plus parts) kinda thing.

My main advice to you would be don't let yourself get dragged down by this and don't let it drag on too long.

Best wishes in finding something that satisfies you.

Matthew

Luke -

Totally with ya on the customer service thing... I started seriously into computers around '95. This was my hobby, and now I support my family on what used to be my hobby!!!

I've worked for companies that were ****ty to their employees, I've worked for companies that were great to their employees. I helped to start an onsite computer service firm, so I have *totally* been in the customer service bag. Sometimes people feel like you owe it to them for even calling on you for the chance to possibly get paid by them....
BS!
;)

I've found a good corporate level sys admin position that gives me the challenges that I like, without the insane hours required. I'm still on call 24x7.... and my weekends are interrupted from time to time, but compared to the company that I worked previously (60hr weeks the norm), this place is a dream.

I also reach my wits end and have serious reservations about my career path from time to time. Those usually fade. I made one bad decision many years back that took me way out of my comfort zone, and left me stressed and miserable for a year. Think about what you like with your tech job, think about what you dont like, and think about what you would like to do *if* you could keep working tech... what would make you a happy camper?

Then try to locate a job that has most/all of those criteria. If you have the Sr level experience, you could get into higher level corporate work, Sys Admin for a mid-to-large sized company, and likely be able to steer clear of customer service/support interactions.

I hate seeing people with a ton of experience in a field.... toss it due to dissatisfaction And what pains me more is when they figure out it was the environment and not necessarily the job.

Now, a career change may be in the works for you. Of that, I cannot talk anything about, as all of my jobs have been tech centric.

But I have always wanted to got to work for a custom body shop, or work in the voice over/voice acting industry, so if I was to jump ship, it would likely be in one of those directions.
;)



Think about it and best of luck!

Another thought spawned by Tech Daddy's post: get a copy of "What Color is My Parachute" from the local library. It has work through's that help you define your ideal working situation and then draw on the skills you have to get you there. It's all based around questions such as "do you like working with people, information or things?" but it's a great book if you are on this point, teetering on the edge. I've known people use it and discover what they really wanted was the opposite of what they have, then they made the shift and boy were they happier.

CrazyB

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Crazy Buddhist

Have you contemplated using your tech skills in your own small business. Just setting up new PC's for Grandma's and the like, all you need is a van or car and print some flyers then go post them through the doors in every rich part of town. Setting up wireless networks pays too.

---

I wouldn't recommend that. If you spend less than 15 minutes doing something simple for them, some folks don't even want to pay you for the gas it took to drive to their house. You would be dealing with a lot more "people" problems if you try doing this.

I do agree with some of the replies here, about the work environment. I worked for a place that I truly hated because the work environment was very political. I had to spend more time trying to make myself look good in front of managers than I could spend working. People there would try to make you look bad to make themselves look good. It was pure hell.

Then that company finally laid me off. I spend some time unemployed, but now I have a job where the politics are very light. People work instead of trying to make each other look like idiots. I different job environment may help you out a lot.

Thanks for the positive comments guys.

All in all, I'm finding that I'm just really out of my comfort zone now with the new job, and the anxiety and stress of trying to get into web development is really pushing me hard. Add that to the recent loss, and the fact that my own business of offering consulting and tech support for people/businesses is now preparing to take a customer to court over non-payment, defamation, and harassment, and you can see how much stress I'm under.

I even find myself now saying things like "I never should have left my sysadmin job." even though the hours were atrocious (Luke Weeks.. remember those?). The hardest part is honestly trying to stay positive in the light of all this misery and tragedy that I have faced in the past few months.

The heavy equipment operator job looks pretty interesting, but I'm sure it'll get old fast. I would basically be running a loader and filling trucks. Pay is good, but it'll be pretty repetitive. Dirty isnt really a problem, but the commute is roughly 30 mins each way, and with fuel costs up (though slowly coming down around here), I'm hesitant to take it up.

The baking job.. well, I dont even know exactly what that pays or what the hours are like.. I just saw the ad and thought, "I love to cook! Plus as a baker, you are only dealing with other bakers!" Looked interesting, but I havent really done anything to follow through on it.

You know that you are in the wrong place when you come home ready to cry everyday, and the thought of going back there the next day makes you afraid.

This upcoming legal battle really has me shaken too; I have no confidence in myself or my skills right now, and the thought of ending up in another situation like this just makes me want to walk away from tech work completely.

At the same time, I know that I'm good at it, and have been doing it for so many years, that to start over would be really difficult. Not impossible, just difficult. I think what I really need is just a fresh idea of how to apply what I already know in some new way, that isnt going to put me in the same situation again.

I know where you're coming from Luke (albeit on a much smaller scale). If working at Geek Squad has taught me anything it's that people are bastards. I realize that yes, our prices can be steep, but hey, we do work for non-techies and our pricing is on a global scale. We can't always make everyone happy (it seems like we rarely ever do..). People come to Best Buy and bitch after they buy a service plan and don't use it. They bitch to Geek Squad after they buy something without a service plan and it breaks. I've been hung up on multiple times because [it's my fault that] someone bought a TV, didn't have us set it up and can't figure out how to use it. I've been yelled at by customers who have to wait 2 weeks to get their product fixed at the service center. Boo-frickin-hoo, you aren't paying for the service since it under warranty.

I used to work in computer sales before I got moved to Geek Squad and even out there people were Richard Craniums. I had one customer with enough audacity to tell me I was flat out wrong about 32-bit Vista (I told him it wouldn't be able to see 4GB of memory, due to the fact that it's 32-bit), tell me he was an IT professional and that Vista was the only OS that couldn't use 4GB in 32-bit operation. Apparently XP could :rolleyes:. Right.... He got pissy and stormed off. I had another customer tell me that I was wrong about his plan to do a home theater/networked PC setup. Apparently 360's can now read Blu-ray and a Geforce 6100 can render 1080p like a dream. No. No they can't. I had another person tell me Ubuntu was UNIX (I suppose this is a common mistake) and one more tell me his Alienware had two Radeon 9800GTX cards.


I hate people. And Luke - sorry to hear about your situation. I really hope it turns around for you.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Luke122

Thanks for the positive comments guys.

All in all, I'm finding that I'm just really out of my comfort zone now with the new job, and the anxiety and stress of trying to get into web development is really pushing me hard. Add that to the recent loss, and the fact that my own business of offering consulting and tech support for people/businesses is now preparing to take a customer to court over non-payment, defamation, and harassment, and you can see how much stress I'm under.

....

At the same time, I know that I'm good at it, and have been doing it for so many years, that to start over would be really difficult. Not impossible, just difficult. I think what I really need is just a fresh idea of how to apply what I already know in some new way, that isnt going to put me in the same situation again.

---

Luke my friend, I think somewhere along the line you started blaming yourself for all this. You seem to have lost touch with your own basic goodness. You're a great guy and have a big heart, a lot of transferable skills and life will get better again.

Matthew

ps Get the book I recommended "What color is your parachute" that is all about arriving at "a fresh idea of how to apply what (you) already know in some new way, that isnt going to put (you) in the same situation again."

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Crazy Buddhist

Get the book I recommended "What color is your parachute" that is all about arriving at "a fresh idea of how to apply what (you) already know in some new way, that isnt going to put (you) in the same situation again."

---

This is solid advice! People recommend this book when you are out of work. "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" will also help you answer behavioral job interview questions.

All I can say is go with your heart. You can always return to tech work in the future.

Take a step back and a break from the mainstreme.

I think 90% of what I've learned has been on my own. I went to Ga Tech and some of my peers that were very successful were not successful because they had tech jobs. It's because they learned it on their own.

I have a very steady day job that affords me the time opportunity to develop my tech skills on my own.

I'd be doing the same thing, learning as much as I could, even if i was parking cars or busing tables.

You don't have to have a tech job to maintain strong tech skills.

TD

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by .Maleficus.

I realize that yes, our prices can be steep

---

Like $350 to wipe a hard drive and reload XP:eek:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by .Maleficus.

. . . . .people were Richard Craniums.

---

I had to think about that for a minute.:think:

I hate it when the customer in front of me starts complaining about price etc etc and the economy to the cashier, be it anywhere anytime. For me, if you need something, you just pay for it irregardless of the price as long as its affordable and keep your mouth shut in the process. These "customers are always right" people certainly never thought of finding more moolah to keep up with their usual lifestyle since a drop in economy or a minor hike in some products or services can make them whine worse than a 6 year old who don't get his/her daily dose of Spongebob.